15 October 2007

friday afternoon

we took to the streets of downtown portland, loads of little paper fortunes in hand. we were hoping to leave them in a hundred different places, we were hoping all kinds of people would find them. and smile or laugh or stop for a second and look around. or something, anything. who knows how much of that actually happened but it doesn't really matter. as it turns out, the act of doing was enough.

inspired by keri smith'sguerilla art kit, I cut paper into teeny tiny slips and set out a mess of colored pencils. the crew was hungry for a project and didn't need a lot of extra prompting from me. the crew (aka guerilla art army) at hand: ava and friends abby and millie, plus kind of/sort of ezra.

there really weren't any rules except, you know, to write something nice. what I told them was to write something they might like to find and read. interesting, the slight variations in interpretation: for example, abby felt strongly about dating each of her fortunes while millie's messages were more succinct and abstract, decorated with hearts and stars and exclamation points. mine were in the vein of hey, your hair looks good today or go on, play hooky from work and ava's were so heartbreakingly sweet I could barely stand to read them. messages like don't listen to the mean things people say and you will always look pretty. I saved that last one, by the way. tucked it away someplace special. sort of makes me want to cry when I look at it. but also, it makes me feel pretty.

after lunch we set out for downtown. on our way to catch the street car, millie hid the first secret fortune in a small, rectangular nook close to the ground. abby said only a kid would find that one because adults are mostly too busy looking ahead and walking fast. uh, she's probably right. no wait, she is absolutely right.

it didn't take long before the whole thing turned into the best game ever. where to hide the fortunes? where could they be effectively hidden but still be found? how will they keep from blowing away? what if we'd thought to bring tape? millie wins the prize for most brilliant hiding place: in the coils of the springs of a bicycle seat. so wishing I'd thought of that one.

a few other hiding places:

in the basket of a bicycle parked outside the library. personally, I think anyone who takes the time to decorate their bicycle basket with flowers deserves a secret fortune.

underneath some leaves on a concrete bench outside the downtown public library.

in the crack of yet another concrete bench and again with the downtown library. we hit the inside pretty hard too.

and speaking of the library, as we were walking by, we passed a homeless woman who'd set up camp on one of the concrete benches and was surrounded by several bags stuffed with what looked to be all her earthly possessions. and before I could stop it (or even have time to think about whether or not I should stop it), ava carefully placed one of her secret fortunes in the one small spot that wasn't occupied by the woman's bags. I was too busy chasing after ezra to react but once I caught up with him, I turned to see if the woman had noticed the fortune. and then I saw her pick up that tiny piece of paper and look in our direction. I turned away just then, hastily put my camera down. felt something akin to shame. actually, I wasn't sure how I felt because I wasn't sure how she felt. I wasn't sure if she was crazy or if maybe she thought I was crazy or if it was even okay that we had done what we'd done. but I couldn't help myself, I turned to look at her once more and dang it if she wasn't smiling.

for the next person who needs to make a call. wait, is there anyone left in the world who still uses the pay phone? I hope so.

I can't wait to do this again. I absolutely cannot wait. should you feel the need to try this out yourself, please do. and report back. we could all use a little bit more of the shiny happy, yes? precisely the point.

Oh my god, Andrea, this is my favourite idea ever. I can hardly wait until my kid is old enough to write (well, actually I can -- I'm having a heartbreaking "she's growing up too fast" day today, but that's another story). I love this. And you will always look pretty.

Oh,oh I love this! I so wish I had found one. (I live in Portland - and work near Downtown) What a wonderful idea. I will keep my eyes open. Just think how many people you made happy... including the woman at the library. I see her almost everyday after I drop my husband off at work.

oh man, this is the best ending to my day possible. why do i feel like i received all of those fortunes?! thank you. you are so inspiring. i hope i am as cool and thoughtful as a mother someday. i will definitely remember this one. thanks for sharing.it made me think of a recent post of yours trying to explain to your daughter what you do for a job. you can say, i try to add more smiles and love and laughter to the world and teach my kids to do the same...

when i grow up i want to be a mommy like andrea! i love this so much. and yes..yes..yes..in my humble opinion i think it was absolutely right to give the lady on the bench a little note. what a beautiful thing....the spontaneous, loving, pure heart of a child.

how GREAT is this?!? i wish i was there with you! and best post EVER!!! i wish i could tell you how much i loved reading this... you bring so much 'hula' into our lives with your writing/photos, thanks!

Just bought the book this weekend and now you've ignited the spark, to go out (or IN as I like to say) to the world and make a difference (for someone else maybe? for me definitely.) thru art/love/expression. Thanks for the beautiful photos and recounting of a very special day.

i love to go guerilla 'book-hiding,' (although books are hard to hide, so it's more like random placement) but this is just too incredible. it is pure goodness and light. i'll probably be looking all over the city for those strips of paper now. :)

Wow, reading this really made my day (and this is, or was, a bad day, so you did a good job!). Almost as if I had received one of the fortunes myself. Thanks for doing this and telling the story with wonderful photos and words.

Must try this and turn other peoples' days upside down (hopefully in the right direction).

You have so many comments on this entry. So heres another one. I dont even know how I found your blog, but im certainly happy i did. I really got inspired from this form of guerrilla art, i knew about guerrilla marketing, but i didnt know you can make a proyect like this with art. Im planning on doing one myself :) Thank you for your inspiration.

How enchanting! Reading about this brilliant project totally made my day. I am so going to do this with my little girl when she is old enough. Acutally I don't think I can wait that long. :) Thank you for setting such a beautiful, inspiring example!

I LOVE that idea!!!! That is so cool! I'm totally doing that as soon as we move to our new house. We live in Philadelphia and the city of brotherly love may need some anonymous feel good fortunes-thanks for an awesome idea to do with my girls! My in-laws actually live in Portland, I hope next time we are up that way I'll be lucky enough to find one. I was lucky enough to just find your blog, and am adding you to my list of inspiring people-I'll be checking back! peace, d.

This is just wonderful and you made me smile just reading and the fact that you all sent all sorts of inspiration and good fortune out into the world... well that is precious beyond belief... thank you!

What a beautiful thing you did for people that day...we need more people like you in our world. Could you please clone you and your friends and come down here...actually, we can just copy your idea, can't we?

Being a Portlander, this makes me want to go downtown and hunt for fortunes!!! Wonderful idea -- sounds like you had so much fun! I bet the girls will remember that for a long, long time. Oh, and if that's the same homeless woman who was at the library last week, she is crazy. Good job making her smile!

This must be one of the best ideas ever! It would make my whole week to find a note like that. Just imagine how many people you have made feel good (including all of us who have read about it!). Thank you!!

I did something anonymously once, like this, that I intended to make the recipients feel good, and instrad it made ME feel good that they (hopefully) felt good. I bought a box of 365 tiny mini cards. Everyday I scanned our works birthday list and sent one card, with a box of chiclets gum, and signed it "from your secret admirer." Everyone secretly thought they were special and when they started noting them on other peoples desks they started asking who they knew in common that could be doing it. It was fun to hear all the speculation and excitement at who would get one next and yet remain totally anonymous. I plan to try your fortune variation next because I think it is brilliant and applaude you for sharing it with your children. You're the kind of mom that will be the reason our children will save the world.tonya

Hey...just to let you know...I've left my first three notes out today in Costco of all places ... but hey, maybe there was another mom like me, rushing around, needing to hear something nice! Thanks so much again for posting about this...will involve the family soon!

i found one of your notes in oregon square by the state building. the message didn't apply to me but it made me smile. i'm going to do his with my son and his friends one of these weekends soon i hope. nice work!

I did this a couple of months back with sticky-notes, I didn't even realise you had done it! My favourite notes were the ones I left on the mirrors in the changeroom at work saying 'Smile! You look pretty today'. They were left up there for over a week and I had to try so hard not to grin everytime I heard a coworker talking about how nice it was :) Such a fun thing to do, and very exciting! Here's a post with photos of my sticky notes http://sixteenbluebirds.blogspot.com/2009/08/spreading-awesome.html